Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-08-20

ally strong and active woman, but when told
that she must take up her crutches and walk
upon them the remainder of her life she
decided TO "own the crutches and not let
them own her" And from that day to this
she has never made any one unhappy on ac-
count OF them; never complained about them
Indeed, no one who knows her remembers
that she is in the least afflicted. Triumphant
ly, not repiningly, does she bear her cross
She is n conspicuous illustration OF the little
known truth that there is no bodily or other
afiliction which the human spirit cannot
overcome or hold in mastery if it does but
assert itself in its Godlike might
1t was while suffering On the bed Of sick
ness which left her lame that Olive Harper
began to write Her first production was a
story for Harper's This WAS followed at
once by series Of articles in The Oakland
Daily News which attracted attention and
led to an engagement with The Alta Cali
fornia and The Golden Era, Of San Fran
cisco. For The Alta California she Travelled
all over the state The owners Of the paper
had never seen her, and did not know until
long afterward that she could only walk on
crutches. She placed her children in school
and went all over the state, sometimes travel
ing by rail, sometimes by stage, on horseback
and on mules, and always laughing and
happy and never tired. She is still blessed
with remarkable health, aside from her lame
ness, and has endless capacity for work
While travelling for The Alta California she
made an engagement with The St Louis
Globe, now The Globe Democrat, and has
continued to contribute to il to this day.
Destiny seemed determined to compensate
this heroic soul for its unkindness in crippling
her body. Opportunities poured in upon her
and money became plentiful. Everything
she did was successful and brought good
financial return. In the winter of ~ she
wrote a poem, entitled CLEOPATRA which
was endlessly copied i'll this country, repub-
lished in England and translated into German
and Hungarian. Because of it she Was made
honorary member Of the Hungarian National
Academy of Sciences.
In 1878, just one year after writing her
first article, Olive Harper went to Vienna, To
the great exhibition, to represent The Alta
California, The Globe Democrat, and The
Graphic of this city. Stopping in London six
weeks she met many literary men and wo-
men. After the exhibition sine went into
Hungary, down the Danube, into and through
Bull saria and RouIuelia, thence to Russia and
down the Black sea to Constantinople, where
size remained year, going at intervals
through the interior Then she Went to
Greece, and TO Albania, and back to England,
where she remained a year. visiting all parts
of the kingdom. Some of the trips she made
We're not without peril
While i'll England she published four novels
The Lotus of the Nile" a Drift of Sand,-
Becky" and The Tame Turk" During this
time she perfected herself in French and
studied German, electrical science and people
ami customs. She returned to this country
u serve her papers at the Centennial exhibi-
ton, and soon added others TO her list
She gave series of lectures i'll Philadelphia
and through the west on Turkey and its De-
pendencies, but not liking the platform so
well as the pen, she abandoned it. Fer time
she was secretary of the Women's National
Industrial league, and gathered large
amount of valuable statistical matter relative
to female labor. which was given to the scna-
tOrial committee. She wrote letters for The
World and Mail and Express, of this city,
embodying information gathered at that
time
For several years she has lived in New
York, going across the continent twice and
south once in five years. Olive Harper is
her pen name. While abroad she married a
gentleman who is a native of Constantinople,
of French and Turkish parentage, and they
have a beautiful boy now Il years old. She
says that she never felt fear in
her life, although fortune has not always
been kind She Just simply goes ahead
With all her travel, she has great fondness
for home, and has her little corner in this
big metropolis. She is firm friend, IA
brave woman and as entertaining in conver-
alton as she is versatile IN her profession
G.. G.